Reflection week 8

This week we did not have class as Puan Foziah was away.Well that does mean that we could just shake our legs without doing anything. Puan foziah had given us some work to be done during the class and for the upcoming two weeks of Raya holidays . The work that we have to do was to create teaching aids and lesson plans for a specific topic and year.This is Assignment 3 . Thank god !it was a group work, so it gave me an oppurtunity to share ideas and at the same to learn about different material that could be used as tecahing aids. Besides, during the two weeks of raya break we had to complete the Module 3 which is not as thick as Module 1.

In order to complete all these bundle of work , a good time management is very important.That why my group members had decided to complete the Assignment 3 before we go off for the break.It was a good decision as we did manage to complete the Assignment 3 on time.We took this desicion in order to give an oppurtunity for our Malay Friends to enjoy their Raya and so that we could focus on completing the Module 3 during the break.(Not including the work given for the other courses).

Thats all for this week.....Selamat Hari Raya friends and Puan Foziah...Enjoy your break ...see you in next entry.

Reflection Week 7

Hai ...we meet again in the 7 week of blogging.Time flies so fast until i didn't realise that i'm at the middle of the semester.Lets move on to this week's class. This week was merely about Module One.I was so thankful to Puan Foziah as she had given us the oppurtunity to complete out tutorials in the class .

Well talking about Tutorials....I realized something that the total number of the tutorial are 80..Wauooooooooooo! Thats alot.Hehe , but do not have to worry as my work is going to end soon as i have fully used my whole weekends by completing the tutorials non stop.Its very tiring actually but i have determined to complete the work by this week so that i could pass it up. Almost 16 hours sitting in front of the lap top was worth it as I managed to complete quater and a half of my work...ehmmmm a good time management, I would say.

In addition, the tutorials are quite useful to me as i learned lots of new skills like uploading videos into the Youtube and Photo Bucket .That was quite interesting. Another tutorial that has really attracted me is "Converting a video into a Mp3"....It was "WOW"....I did really amazed with that and what i did with it?

I converted a few of my favourite videos into Mp3 and saved it into my Mp3 Player and listen to it ,while doing the tutorials....It was like a boost to me.Hahahahahahah....;) that means I am putting the things that I learned into practise.

Ok.....Back to the class of the week......In the class everyone was so busy doing and completing their reflections until nobody realised that time flies so fast. Fully using the whole 2 and a half hour i have completed at least 8 tutorials....that means less that a quater to go......Chayo! Chayo!
Till we meet next week..Good bye

Reflection Week 6

Time goes by so fast that I do not realize that we are in week 6 now. This week’s class was a hectic and tiring one because we had to work on the 1^st Module comprises of more than 70 tutorials. I was so shocked when P. Fozioh told that the module it is due in two weeks time. In my mind “It’s impossible!!!! ”. However, I had another thought........ “Nothing is impossible if we take it positively” like what Pn.Foziah said. It is a matter of time management. If I know how to manage my time properly, then I think I would be able to complete all the tutorials on time besides the printing and the binding the tutorials.

It is a new learning process, I would say as most of tutorials were not familiar to me. Therefore, by completing all this tutorials I would be able to learn new things by the end of this course. I have done some of the tutorials during the class and I found that it was very useful as I learned on new IT stuffs like downloading online games that I did not know before this. I tried playing the game after downloading it to my laptop and it was fun !!!!

There was no much to be said for this week till next week ......adiyos

I need to get back to doing the tutorials..

Reflection Week 5

This week was a different one compared to the other weeks. Today we had to come up with teaching aids for the 3 topics that were assigned for each pair. My group was assigned to find the teaching aids for Year 4, 5 and 6 on Unit 7.The topics for this unit are living in harmony, people and beautiful world. These topics are interesting one I would say. Besides that, according to Pn.Foziah, this would be our 2^nd task. Therefore, in order to make the work easier, she had asked us to narrow done our findings of the teaching aids to a specific topic.

After, discussing with my partner, we have decided to work on the topics, which are Patriotism, occupation and nature. During the class I have tried to find some interesting teaching aids for the topics........I did not misuse the time , I would say.......as Pn.Foziah has given us ample of time to work on this task in class today.

Doing the work in the class is an advantage for me. Some may not think so.....This is because every time I encounter a problem when doing the task given, I could always refer back to Pn.Foziah and she is always there to help us. That is why I do think working on the task in the class is an advantage. My advice to everyone who are reading this post: always ask the expert if you do not understand! This is similar to the Malay proverb saying ‘.Malu bertanya, sesat jalan’

Lastly, before the class ends, we handed in our first task, which was on the three tutorials on how to download song, video and lyrics.

Looking forward for the next class and hope, I could complete the task given for this week.

Till we meet next week, adios.......

Reflection week 4

Hello,every one. We meet again. As usual, we learn different things this week in the Resources class. The two things are:

1. Group presentation ( continuation of last week’s class)

2. How to download songs and videos

3. Introduction to Moyea Flv Player

This week was a continuation of last week’s topic ‘Working with young language learners ‘.The first group presented on the sub-topic ‘Children’s ability to grasp meaning’. This topic was so informational as I found out that ‘Children understand the meaning of words even before they know the individual words (written). How could this be possible? .It is possible according to Bloom’s (2000) that children grasp aspects of the meaning of a word by using paralinguistic features. Paralinguistic features are expressions and gestures and children make connection to words by using these expressions. Therefore, as a teacher must firstly identify the learning styles of the pupils and then create appropriate teaching aids and instructions in order for them to be able to understand the lesson. An example would be giving visual learners instructions using E-Toys and puppets. Moreover, teachers also play an important role in employing appropriate paralinguistic features in order to carry out lessons. Some children would get bored by just learning through words, thus teachers should integrate different tools to teach that integrates paralinguistic features.

On the other hand, group 4 presented on the topic ‘Children’s instinct for play and fun. At a very young age, children do have a great passion for fun and play. Therefore, we as the teachers should actually relate this behaviour into the teaching learning process. Teachers should engage the pupils into activities where they can actually play and have fun. For example, singing songs, dramas, movements and performing arts. Thus, we could actually encourage the pupils’ creativity and to help them to learn English. In addition, this group has also given a list of activities of interesting activities that could be carries out based on these concepts such as:

‘circle time, creative movement, art projects, outdoor play, snack time, building with blocks, dramatic play, manipulative toys, co-operative play, sand/water table, clean-up session, puzzles and cooking activities’.

In addition, another topic presented is ‘Children’s creative use of limited language resources’. Children may not have enough vocabulary to communicate. However, that does not constrain them from communicating. This eventually results in them over generating the rules, for example the use of negative suffixes like ‘Switch off the dark’ for ‘Switch off the light’. The teachers may face this phenomenon, as children in the primary school are still not familiar with the rules in English. Therefore, teacher could actually encourage children’s language skills by carrying out language games that integrate the speaking skills. Language games would encourage pupils to communicate as they will practise and internalise vocabulary when they talk. Group work is among the activities that could encourage the pupils to talk and to improve their language.

Whereas, the last group presented on the subtopic ‘the role of imagination’. Imagination is a wonderful catalyst that teacher could integrate in the teaching and learning process. Young children are usually are delighted when they play with their imagination. Therefore, it would be a wonderful idea to integrate imagination in the instruction to teach language. Teachers could carry out in the classroom many imagination activities. Examples of these activities are the hot seat, story and drama. In the hot seat activity, teacher could ask a pupil to imagine that they are of any characters and the other pupils will post question to the person who is sitting on the hot seat (chair).

All these 6 concepts are very useful for us as teachers-to-be. This is because by knowing all these we could actually understand our pupils better and thus, come up with instructions that suit their need and preferences.

Besides the presentation, we were also taught by Pn.Foziah ,about one of the fastest software to download, which is using the Moyea Flv Player. This was a new knowledge for me as I am not expert in downloading .In addition, she had also introduced us some sites where we could download free songs and videos such as 4shared, You tube, and other websites. In order to put this knowledge into practise, she asked us to download the mp3 song and the video of ‘Waka-waka’ by Shakira and to do the tutorial on how to search for a song, video and lyrics. She was quite kind to demonstrate to us on how to do ‘Print Screen’. This class was very beneficial for me as I have learnt many things in a day especially about the ways to download and to do tutorials.

hOpe ThAt I cOuLd sToRe ThEsE KnOwLeDgE fOr ThE fUtUrE uSe............

Reflection Week 3

Today’s class was interesting, as we were required to do power point presentation based on the topic ‘Working with young learners’. We were divided into group of six and were assigned a sub–topic. My group presented on the sub-topic ‘Children’s capacity for indirect learning’. This topic would be a recall on the learning theories. Indirect learning refers to the way children acquire knowledge from the teaching learning process. Children acquire the knowledge without their consciousness and this referred as indirect learning.

To make things easy, an example of language acquired by children indirectly is their mother language. There were no rules learning done by the children, however they have acquired the language fluently. Therefore, it is evident that indirect learning had taken place. When children learn indirectly, they will learn more than what the teachers could supply in the classroom. Therefore, it will be a good idea to bring in activities that could encourage this indirect learning in the classroom. Language activities are most suitable to be imposed in this kind of learning. Some examples of language games are hangman, charade, word puzzle, spelling bee. Moreover, guessing games for instance is a great way to encourage the children to learn indirectly. When, they guess the right words, they would have a good control of the words and remember them better. Thus, enabling the pupils to recall the knowledge even after a long period of time.

On the other hand, the power point presentation that we have presented was good, however there were two points that were raised by Puan Foziah. First, was on the examples of the language activities. She asked us to include in some point or explanation on each language games that we had presented so that the audience would have a better understanding on the presentation. Moreover , she also asked us to include in the HTML address for each of the citations that we have put in, so that it will be easier for us to refer to the reference. In addition, from my point of view, the presentation could be improved by adding more information regarding the term ‘ Indirect learning’. We could have inserted in the definition of ‘indirect learning’ and some examples of indirect learning. However, I do believe that from the 2 minutes video that was shown in the presentation, had given an extra input to my friends on how indirect learning takes place in the primary school.

Furthermore, another group, group 6 also presented their group discussion on the topic ‘The instinct for interaction and talk’. I would say this group had done a good job as they had given us a complete presentation. They have discussed about the importance of interaction to children. Conversation is very important for the pupils in order for them to exchange their thoughts. When, they interact, they would learn more from the environment and from other pupils. Some types of interactions raised by this group are pupil-pupil interaction, teacher-pupil interaction, pupil–teacher interaction and so on. However, some pupils do find difficulties in interacting in the classroom. Therefore, the responsibility relies on the teacher to encourage the pupils’ interaction. Teachers should create a good learning environment, engaging the children into group work and carry out activities which requires the pupils to talk. This group has also recommended some activities that I think are very effective in encouraging the pupils to talk such as role-play, hot seat, magic box, circle- reading, puppet presentation, spelling-B and so on.

I do agree with this group’ recommendations of activities as children will have a chance to learn as well as to have fun when they are engaged in the activities. Moreover, from my point of view, this presentation would be better if they have included in some citations taken from researches in order to support their points. The other group presentations were postponed to next week due to lack of time.